Obesity drugs that offer the benefits of currently available injectable drugs, but in pill form, are part of the next wave of metabolic medicines in development. Cardiometabolic disease biotech Corxel Pharmaceuticals is getting a contender in a deal that brings a Phase 2-ready drug candidate.
Corxel announced this week the acquisition of VCT220, a small molecule GLP-1 agonist developed by China-based Vincentage Pharma. Privately held Corxel, which is based in Shanghai and maintains U.S. operations in New Jersey, gains global rights to the drug candidate, excluding Greater China. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Going forward, the once-daily oral drug candidate will be known as CX11.
GLP-1 is the same gut receptor targeted by Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy. Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound also hit that receptor as well as another one called GIP. All of these drugs are peptides engineered to mimic hormones that bind to and activate their target receptors to spark metabolic effects, such as regulating blood sugar and suppressing appetite.
Currently available GLP-1 drugs are injectable products. In addition to being more expensive to manufacture, injectable drugs pose a dosing burden to patients. Big pharma companies and upstart biotechs are researching ways to hit the GLP-1 receptor with small molecules that can be formulated as more patient-friendly pills. Last year, AstraZeneca paid $185 million up front for ex-China rights to a Phase 2-ready oral GLP-1 receptor agonist from Eccogene. Other companies in clinical-stage development with oral small molecule GLP-1 drugs for obesity include Roche, Structure Therapeutics, Viking Therapeutics, and Terns Pharma.
According to Corxel, a Vincentage Phase 2 clinical trial in China showed CX11 demonstrated competitive weight loss with favorable safety and tolerability. That research has progressed to a pivotal Phase 3 test that recently began in China. Corxel is preparing to evaluate the drug in its own Phase 2 clinical trial. This global (excluding China) study, which will enroll patients who are obese or overweight, is slated to begin in 2025.
“Obesity has become a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, liver disease, and also including cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke, which are the leading causes of death worldwide,” Sandy Mou, board executive director and CEO of Corxel, said in a prepared statement. “This acquisition marks Corxel’s expansion of its cardiometabolic pipeline into obesity and diabetes, and we are excited about the potential of CX11, which has shown impressive efficacy in weight reduction, making it a potential best-in-class oral small molecule GLP-1 [receptor agonist].”
Corxel, formerly known as Ji Xing in China, was founded in 2019 and has been supported by financing from life sciences investment firm RTW Investments. The company focuses on developing cardiometabolic medicines that can be made available to underserved patients around the world.
The other clinical-stage assets in the Corxel pipeline are JX10, a drug licensed from Biogen that is in development for acute ischemic stroke, and JX09, a hypertension drug acquired from PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals. The pipeline had included China rights to aficamten, a Cytokinetics drug in development for symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Last week, Corxel sold its aficamten development and commercialization rights to Sanofi for an undisclosed sum.
Cytokinetics remains eligible for up to $150 million in milestone payments from Sanofi as well as royalties from sales of the drug in Greater China. Additional payments due to Cytokinetics from the transaction between Sanofi and Corxel were undisclosed. Earlier this month, Cytokinetics said the FDA had accepted the its new drug application for aficamten, setting a late September 2025 target date for a regulatory decision. If approved, aficamten will compete with Bristol Myers Squibb drug Camzyos.
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